Bilingual children＇ s word awareness can reflect the impact of bilingualism on language cognition from the aspect of psycholinguistics. The current studies on bilingual children＇s word awareness both at home and abr...Bilingual children＇ s word awareness can reflect the impact of bilingualism on language cognition from the aspect of psycholinguistics. The current studies on bilingual children＇s word awareness both at home and abroad show that there exist quite opposite points of views： bilingual disadvantage and bilingual advantage. The interpretation mechanisms of interference effect, word frequency, and mutual exclusivity constraint are used to support the bilingual disadvantage; while the interpretation mechanisms of bilingual advantage include sound coding, short-term memory, and inhibitory control. In effect, there is no negative impact of bilingualism on children＇s word awareness, and the so-called negative effects only exist on the theoretical aspect of research. The development of children＇s word awareness is influenced by many factors including age of acquisition, learning environment, and bilingual proficiency, etc.展开更多
Childhood is a critical period for language development, and it is of great importance to discover normal language development and any specific language impairment （SLI） in child language acquisition and then to giv...Childhood is a critical period for language development, and it is of great importance to discover normal language development and any specific language impairment （SLI） in child language acquisition and then to give them timely diagnosis and treatment. Also it has been previously shown that the non-word repetition task is an efficient assessment tool to screen out those children suspected with SLI. Based on this premise, the present study examined whether the non-word repetition task can be a suitable screening tool to detect language disorders for preschool children in Mandarin Chinese in China. A non-word repetition task was adapted specifically for this purpose. This study examined differences in non-word repetition performance of Mandarin-speaking preschool children screened by a criterion-referenced diagnostic test of specific language impairment （SLI） （the value of Cronbach Alpha at 0.86）. A sample of 282 children were administered the diagnostic test, and a total of 23 SLI suspects were screened out as their language ability measures deviated from the mean by 1.5 SDs. Results indicated that children with SLI made no error with respect to tone in Mandarin, but they showed great difficulty in non-word repetition skills compared to age-matched controls. The findings confirmed that the non-word repetition task is a culturally nonbiased index of language disorders, and that two syllable non-words can be used to identify language disorder.展开更多
This paper reports an empirical study that examined the widespread practice of using songs in language teaching for young learners. The study may represent the first methodologically rigorous assessment of vocabulary ...This paper reports an empirical study that examined the widespread practice of using songs in language teaching for young learners. The study may represent the first methodologically rigorous assessment of vocabulary acquisition through songs as used in language teaching. Over a seven-week period including fifteen 40-minute classes, three groups of students from two private kindergartens in Beijing were taught five short English phrases of 4-8 words through each of three conditions （songs, choral repetition, control） in a within-subject repeated measures design. Vocabulary acquisition was measured by the number of meaningful morphemes produced by the students in a picture description task administered before and after the teaching period. Results indicated significant acquisition for items learned through songs and choral repetition, but not for control items. The implication is that songs may indeed contain important pedagogical value.展开更多
基金Acknowledgements： This study was supported by National Social Science Foundation （grant number 14BYY060）, a China Postdoctoral Science Foundation （grant number 2012M520057）, and a Startup Fund for Advanced Talents of Nanjing Forestry University （grant number GXL022）.
文摘Bilingual children＇ s word awareness can reflect the impact of bilingualism on language cognition from the aspect of psycholinguistics. The current studies on bilingual children＇s word awareness both at home and abroad show that there exist quite opposite points of views： bilingual disadvantage and bilingual advantage. The interpretation mechanisms of interference effect, word frequency, and mutual exclusivity constraint are used to support the bilingual disadvantage; while the interpretation mechanisms of bilingual advantage include sound coding, short-term memory, and inhibitory control. In effect, there is no negative impact of bilingualism on children＇s word awareness, and the so-called negative effects only exist on the theoretical aspect of research. The development of children＇s word awareness is influenced by many factors including age of acquisition, learning environment, and bilingual proficiency, etc.
基金supported by the Child Caring Center, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
文摘Childhood is a critical period for language development, and it is of great importance to discover normal language development and any specific language impairment （SLI） in child language acquisition and then to give them timely diagnosis and treatment. Also it has been previously shown that the non-word repetition task is an efficient assessment tool to screen out those children suspected with SLI. Based on this premise, the present study examined whether the non-word repetition task can be a suitable screening tool to detect language disorders for preschool children in Mandarin Chinese in China. A non-word repetition task was adapted specifically for this purpose. This study examined differences in non-word repetition performance of Mandarin-speaking preschool children screened by a criterion-referenced diagnostic test of specific language impairment （SLI） （the value of Cronbach Alpha at 0.86）. A sample of 282 children were administered the diagnostic test, and a total of 23 SLI suspects were screened out as their language ability measures deviated from the mean by 1.5 SDs. Results indicated that children with SLI made no error with respect to tone in Mandarin, but they showed great difficulty in non-word repetition skills compared to age-matched controls. The findings confirmed that the non-word repetition task is a culturally nonbiased index of language disorders, and that two syllable non-words can be used to identify language disorder.
文摘This paper reports an empirical study that examined the widespread practice of using songs in language teaching for young learners. The study may represent the first methodologically rigorous assessment of vocabulary acquisition through songs as used in language teaching. Over a seven-week period including fifteen 40-minute classes, three groups of students from two private kindergartens in Beijing were taught five short English phrases of 4-8 words through each of three conditions （songs, choral repetition, control） in a within-subject repeated measures design. Vocabulary acquisition was measured by the number of meaningful morphemes produced by the students in a picture description task administered before and after the teaching period. Results indicated significant acquisition for items learned through songs and choral repetition, but not for control items. The implication is that songs may indeed contain important pedagogical value.
